EDITORIAL: The death of a symbol of freedom

Published: Friday, December 6, 2013 at 03:56 PM.

Commenting on Nelson Mandela’s lifelong struggle against oppression, Principal Karyn Combs of Florosa Elementary School said Thursday that “freedom is not free.” It isn’t always clean and simple, either. Mandela’s death reminds us that sometimes even the champions of liberty embrace radical policies and forge dubious alliances on the path to a greater good.
The world knows the basics about Nelson Mandela. He fought South Africa’s policy of apartheid — strict racial segregation and the rule of minority whites over majority blacks — from the 1940s onward. For his efforts, he was thrown into an island prison for 27 years. There he became a martyr. When he was released in 1990, white rule was near its end. Mandela shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with South Africa’s like-minded president, F.W. de Klerk, and became the country’s first black president in 1994.
As the 21st century dawned, Mandela was one of the world’s most revered statesmen.
But he was also denounced as a communist and a terrorist, even in America. Such is often the fate of those who upset applecarts.
It’s true that in the 1950s, Mandela endorsed guerrilla tactics in the struggle against apartheid. “I do not deny that I planned sabotage,” he told a court.
Yet, 40 years later, he was a master of reconciliation, lunching with a former prosecutor and singing an apartheid-era anthem at his own inauguration. Since apartheid ended, South Africa’s elections have been peaceful.
It’s also true that Mandela was chummy with Fidel Castro and Moammar Gadhafi and talked while in prison about nationalizing banks, mines and other industries.
Yet, after he was released, he knew he had to maintain fee-market policies to attract foreign investment to South Africa — and, not incidentally, to keep white-run businesses on his side.
The path to freedom can be full of detours and compromises.
Nelson Mandela navigated that road with wisdom, bringing true freedom to his homeland and becoming an example for the rest of the world.

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Commenting on Nelson Mandela’s lifelong struggle against oppression, Principal Karyn Combs of Florosa Elementary School said Thursday that “freedom is not free.” It isn’t always clean and simple, either. Mandela’s death reminds us that sometimes even the champions of liberty embrace radical policies and forge dubious alliances on the path to a greater good.
The world knows the basics about Nelson Mandela. He fought South Africa’s policy of apartheid — strict racial segregation and the rule of minority whites over majority blacks — from the 1940s onward. For his efforts, he was thrown into an island prison for 27 years. There he became a martyr. When he was released in 1990, white rule was near its end. Mandela shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with South Africa’s like-minded president, F.W. de Klerk, and became the country’s first black president in 1994.
As the 21st century dawned, Mandela was one of the world’s most revered statesmen.
But he was also denounced as a communist and a terrorist, even in America. Such is often the fate of those who upset applecarts.
It’s true that in the 1950s, Mandela endorsed guerrilla tactics in the struggle against apartheid. “I do not deny that I planned sabotage,” he told a court.
Yet, 40 years later, he was a master of reconciliation, lunching with a former prosecutor and singing an apartheid-era anthem at his own inauguration. Since apartheid ended, South Africa’s elections have been peaceful.
It’s also true that Mandela was chummy with Fidel Castro and Moammar Gadhafi and talked while in prison about nationalizing banks, mines and other industries.
Yet, after he was released, he knew he had to maintain fee-market policies to attract foreign investment to South Africa — and, not incidentally, to keep white-run businesses on his side.
The path to freedom can be full of detours and compromises.
Nelson Mandela navigated that road with wisdom, bringing true freedom to his homeland and becoming an example for the rest of the world.